Downloadable SIM (Subscription Identity Module) has been gaining lots of attentions and interests in the mobile communication field as a new scheme to realize flexible subscription management and connectivity provisioning. The MCIM (Machine Communication Identity Module) is one of the downloadable SIM to be remotely provisioned to communication devices. There will be a huge number of devices used and connected via the mobile network in the world in future, and each of the users will use multiple devices. However, the devices are not always used (for example, powered on and off) and do not always need to have connection and subscription for the connectivity during the period of being unused. This fact implies that it is not necessary to keep all the communication devices to be provisioned with the subscriptions for mobile network connectivity all the way and thus it is quite feasible to share the connectivity subscriptions in a group of devices so as to reduce the cost to be paid for the connectivity subscriptions.
US 2008/0261561 provides a technique for transferring a secure soft-SIM (SSIM) from a source mobile device to a target mobile device. However, this document deals only with the case where the two mobile devices are connected and communicate with each other and the transfer is performed between the currently connected devices. It is cumbersome for the user to keep track of changing status in terms of assignment (activation and deactivation) of his/her subscription modules (such as MCIMs) to his/her devices. Thus, it is desirable to automatically manage the subscription assignment between communication devices in a group.